Michael McGrath

CV

Michael McGrath (b. 1977) is an American artist and painter, with a parallel career in graphic design. He lives and works in Rhinebeck, New York's Hudson Valley. His most recent works draw inspiration from his contemporary surroundings in upstate New York and its history, as well as from his naive curiosity about the mysticism, mythology, and religious cults. His skulls and ghosts represent the afterlife and death with a dash of joy and hope. His faces are frequently those of gods, deities, or the deceased, and he believes that “...if there were gods, ghosts or magic, they would exist in nature and in the landscape; not just beings in the sky, but also in the ground, in the trees, in the flowers and in the animals.”

McGrath has given his audience the freedom to connect with their actual selves, find refuge in their own strength, and create space to become their own gods with the similar audacity of a kid.
He has most recently shown work in Rhinebeck, New York, Germany, Belgium, and Beijing, China.